How the other five Korean music shows score a No. 1

An earlier guide set out how a Korean weekly music show builds its ranking — what the score is made of and how the published percentages add into a single weekly total — and worked through one broadcaster in detail, KBS’s Music Bank. This guide takes the other five programmes that publish a ranking and covers only what is different about each one: the weights the show itself publishes, which app carries its vote, whether a general audience can take part in that vote and whether the programme is still on air and still handing out a trophy.

Four of the five publish their own formula, most of them reprinting it under every week’s chart. The fifth, The Show (더쇼), does not. This guide says that plainly rather than borrowing a formula from somewhere with no authority to state one.

Everything below was read between 24 and 27 August 2026 from the broadcasters’ own pages and their most recent weekly chart posts. Only the column headings and the percentages are reproduced here; the per-act point totals printed beside them are not.

Two words recur and are worth settling before the steps. 사전투표 (pre-vote) is a vote held in an app in the days before a broadcast, and its result is one of the numbers already added up by the time the show goes on air. 생방송 투표 or 실시간 투표 (live vote) is a vote open only while the programme is being broadcast live; in a 결방 (preemption) week — a week when the show does not air because of sport, news or a holiday — that vote does not happen at all.

1. Start from what the five shows do not share

These five programmes all build a weekly ranking the way the first guide described: named components, each with a published percentage, added into one total. What changes from show to show is the percentages, the app the vote runs in and — on one of them — whether the formula is published at all.

• Show! Music Core (쇼! 음악중심) — MBC, Saturdays at 15:20.
• M COUNTDOWN (엠카운트다운) — Mnet, Thursdays at 18:00 Korean time, live.
• Inkigayo (인기가요) — SBS, Sundays at 15:20.
• Show Champion (쇼챔피언) — MBC every1 and MBC M, Wednesdays at 17:00, live.
• The Show (더쇼) — SBS Life, Tuesdays at 18:00.

Two differences are worth carrying into the rest of the guide. The audience vote is not worth the same anywhere: on Inkigayo the two vote components come to 10% of the weekly total, while Show Champion puts 20% on a single global fan vote. And not every show adds anything during the broadcast — Show Champion’s five components are all settled before it goes on air, while Show! Music Core states outright that its last 10% is added to three songs only.

2. Read Show! Music Core’s two-stage score

Show! Music Core publishes its 1위 선정 기준 (the criteria for choosing the number one) under each week’s chart post. The post dated 24 August 2026 gives six components that produce a pre-broadcast score — 음원 (digital audio) 50%, 음반 (albums) 10%, 동영상 (video) 10%, 방송 횟수 (broadcast plays) 5%, 시청자위원회 투표 (viewer committee vote) 5% and 글로벌 사전투표 (global pre-vote) 10% — and says those pick the 1위 후보 (first-place candidates). For those three teams only, 생방송 앱 투표 (live app vote) 6% and 생방송 문자 투표 (live SMS vote) 4% are then added. It is the one show of the five that states the two stages in its own words: 90% chooses three songs, and a further 10% decides between them.

The 시청자위원회 (viewer committee) is not an open vote. It is a panel of 2,000 viewers MBC selects, and each member votes for four songs from a shortlist of 50 built from the counted audio, album and video scores plus MBC radio plays — a shortlist that already leaves out OST tracks, audio from audition programmes and songs MBC’s review board has ruled unsuitable. A reader cannot simply join it.

The global pre-vote runs in two apps, Mubeat and MUNIVERSE (뮤니버스). MUNIVERSE was added alongside Mubeat from the 30 May 2026 broadcast rather than replacing it, and it publishes its own mechanics. The pre-vote is counted from 18:00 on the Tuesday of the broadcast week to 11:00 on the Thursday, at 5 Ad Lumy a vote — Ad Lumy being points earned inside the app by watching adverts, spinning a roulette or completing missions. The live app vote opens once the broadcast has started, is capped at five votes and costs 60 Gold Lumy or 50 Ad Lumy a vote. MUNIVERSE also states that a completed vote cannot be refunded or cancelled, that the live vote can close earlier than announced if the broadcast is delayed or the count requires it and that there is no live vote in a preempted week.

The windows published for the 22 August 2026 broadcast show how far apart the counting periods sit:

• audio, albums and video views: 10 August 12:00 to 17 August 11:59;
• viewer committee vote: 19 August 09:00 to 20 August 11:00;
• global pre-vote in Mubeat and MUNIVERSE: 18 August 18:00 to 20 August 11:00.

The post carries its own note that these voting periods can move.

Eligibility is stated in the same place: songs released in the two months before the broadcast, one song per act, from artists who have formally debuted. Drama and webtoon OST tracks, audio from audition programmes and songs MBC’s review board has ruled unsuitable are excluded from the count, and a music video that does not fit the programme’s 15 age rating is excluded from the video score. A song that reaches three number ones in total goes into the 레전드 M-Chart and is removed from the chart afterwards.

One component of this formula has no published instructions at all. MBC names the 생방송 문자 투표 and weights it at 4%, and publishes nothing about how it is cast or what it costs.

The programme is on air on Saturdays at 15:20, and its trophy is still awarded: press reporting records RESCENE taking it on 25 July 2026.

3. Open M COUNTDOWN’s score breakdown on Mnet Plus

M COUNTDOWN’s weights are published, but not in the text of the page. They sit on the show’s Chart tab on Mnet Plus, the platform CJ ENM runs, behind a button labelled 차트 산정 비중 — rendered as “M Countdown Score Breakdown” on the English version of the same page. A reader following the citation has to press that button before any number appears.

The panel lists six components:

• 음원 (digital sales) — 50%
• 음반 (album sales) — 15%
• 글로벌 소셜 미디어 (global social media) — 15%
• 글로벌 팬 투표 (global fan votes) — 10%
• 엠넷 방송 (Mnet broadcast) — 10%
• 생방송 투표 (live votes) — 10%

They come to 100% with the live vote already inside them. Mnet publishes no candidate stage for this show — nothing states that the live vote is added only to a shortlist — so this guide does not say it either.

The same panel names the data behind those figures under 자료 제공 (data provided by): 써클차트 (Circle Chart, the industry body that compiles Korean sales and streaming figures), drawing on Apple Music, Spotify, Melon, Bugs, VIBE, genie, FLO, YouTube, Tencent Music, KakaoMusic, SAMSUNG Music and V Coloring, plus TikTok. Of the five shows here, this is the only one that names TikTok as a chart input.

Both vote components appear on Mnet Plus’s own chart interface, so this show’s vote sits on the broadcaster’s platform rather than in a separate app. The programme is live on Thursdays at 18:00 Korean time: Mnet Plus’s live schedule listed M COUNTDOWN 943회 at 6:00PM under 27 August 2026, and the page notes that all its times are KST. Press reporting on the show’s July 2026 broadcasts describes a weekly first-place trophy being awarded.

What Mnet does not publish is a good deal more:

• no aggregation period, so there is no official statement of which days each component counts;
• no eligibility or exclusion rules — nothing on how many songs one act may have on the chart, or what is left out;
• no limit on votes per person or per day.

Two practical notes. The address that used to carry the show’s official vote page, poc.mnetplus.world, no longer resolves at all; a great many third-party guides still link to it, and those links go nowhere. And when this guide was checked, the Chart tab itself was showing a “preparing the chart” message rather than a table, so the breakdown was readable while the weekly figures were not.

4. Follow Inkigayo’s two votes through two separate apps

Inkigayo’s weights were set by a notice dated 16 September 2024, effective from the 6 October 2024 broadcast, and the weekly chart post of 26 August 2026 still prints the same six: 음원 (digital audio) 50%, SNS 20%, 음반 (albums) 10%, ON AIR 10%, 사전투표 (pre-vote) 5% and 실시간투표 (live vote) 5%. The 2024 change was specifically about counting overseas music platforms in the audio score alongside Korean ones.

The weekly post also names the source under each column: domestic and overseas music services for the audio score, YouTube view counts for SNS, 써클 앨범차트 (the Circle album chart) for albums, TV and radio broadcast counts for ON AIR, the LiNC app for the pre-vote and the HIGHER app for the live vote. The counting period is published as a fixed rule — the Monday of the week before last to the Monday of the previous week — and the 26 August post states it concretely as 10 to 17 August.

The live vote does not reach the whole chart. The published table is split in two: ranks 1 to 3 carry a 실시간 앱투표 column, and ranks 4 to 30 do not.

Eligibility differs from Show! Music Core in one number worth noticing: Inkigayo counts up to two songs per artist where Music Core counts one. OST tracks are excluded, so is audio that came out of a broadcast programme such as an audition or variety show and so is anything SBS’s review board has ruled unsuitable. A song that takes three number ones enters the 명예의 전당 (hall of fame) and leaves the chart.

The pre-vote moved to LiNC on 31 March 2025, from an app called Diggus. SBS’s notice sets the sequence out in six steps: the LiNC app is installed from Google Play or the App Store and signed into; on the home screen, SBS 인기가요 사전투표 leads to a 투표하기 (vote) button; one song by one artist is selected; the vote is cast with fan points, which the notice says are earned by watching video adverts or entering LiNC’s star chat rooms; and a certificate is shown once the vote is complete. One account may vote up to ten times a day.

The live vote is a different app again. HIGHER (하이어), renamed from SUPERSTAR X, has carried the live vote that counts towards the ranking since 11 August 2024. SBS states that it runs only during the live broadcast, that it does not run at all in a preempted week and that one person may cast up to five votes while it is open.

One thing on Inkigayo is regularly mistaken for the number one and is not part of it. 핫스테이지 (Hot Stage) is chosen entirely by fan vote among the artists who appeared on that day’s broadcast. It runs in the same HIGHER app, opens immediately after each broadcast and closes at 12:00 the following Thursday, shows its standings for 25 hours and then hides them — randomising the order of the list while they are hidden — until the result is shown on the next live broadcast, and caps one person at five votes a day. It has no bearing on the weekly number one.

SBS lists Inkigayo as on air, Sundays at 15:20.

5. Check Show Champion’s score, which closes before the broadcast

Show Champion prints its formula as a single line under every weekly TOP 5 post. The EP.609 post of 26 August 2026 gives 음원 (digital audio) 35%, 음반 (albums) 15%, 글로벌 팬 투표 (global fan vote) 20%, SNS 10% and 방송 점수 (broadcast score) 20%, with a counting period of 17 to 23 August 2026 and a note that the global fan vote runs each week from Friday to Monday.

Those five components come to 100% before the programme goes on air. Of the shows here, Show Champion is the one with no live in-show vote in its published formula at all, and the one that weights its fan vote most heavily, at 20%. Its counting week runs Monday to Sunday and closes three days before the Wednesday broadcast.

What is published each week is a TOP 5 rather than a full chart, and its columns are exactly the five components plus a total: 순위 (rank), 곡명 (song), 아티스트 (artist), 음원, 음반, 글로벌 팬 투표, SNS, 방송점수 and 총점 (total).

The vote runs in 아이돌챔프 (IDOL CHAMP). The show’s own online pre-vote page states that the Show Champion ranking vote is taken in IDOL CHAMP, and it links only to the app’s App Store and Google Play listings. Those listings give the developer as (주)엠비씨플러스 and the seller as MBC PLUS CO.,LTD. — the app and the programme have the same owner, which is not true of every show here. The weekly number one is called the 챔피언송 (Champion Song).

MBC PLUS publishes the vote’s window and nothing else about its mechanics. How many votes a day the app allows, whether there is a per-device limit and what in-app currency a vote costs are all unstated. Figures for those circulate widely; none of them comes from MBC PLUS, and this guide does not repeat them.

The programme is live on Wednesdays at 17:00, simulcast on MBC every1 and MBC M; EP.609 aired on 26 August 2026.

6. Treat The Show’s formula as unpublished

The Show ran for fourteen years, ended in November 2025 and came back on 2 June 2026 at 18:00 with EP.394 on SBS Life, with 빅크 (BIGC) taking over production from SBS 미디어넷. SBS lists it as on air, Tuesdays at 18:00.

The platform around it belongs to the new operator rather than to the broadcaster. Press at the relaunch described the episode being carried on BIGC ON, the YouTube channel THE K-POP and TikTok Live alongside SBS Life, and SBS’s own listing points the programme’s community (thekpop.bigc.space) and its video-on-demand (bigc.im) at BIGC addresses.

What the chart is made of is reported; what each part is worth is not. Coverage of the relaunch names three ingredients: streaming data from global music services; a 팬덤 인게이지먼트 스코어 (fandom engagement score), which its makers describe as a measurement of activity across global social platforms including Instagram, YouTube and TikTok; and vote data from the BIGC app and website.

There the sourceable record stops. Neither the broadcaster nor the operator has published percentages for those three, a counting period or any eligibility rule. Percentage breakdowns for this show do circulate; they are compiled by readers rather than issued by anyone who runs the programme, and none of them is reproduced here. If BIGC publishes a formula, this is the section of the guide that will change first.

The vote itself is covered. It runs as 빅크 초이스 (BIGC CHOICE) inside the BIGC app, in three parts: an official pre-vote before the broadcast, a live vote on the day and an after-vote once the episode ends. Press describes the pre-vote as deciding two things — which acts compete for that day’s 1위 트로피 (first-place trophy), and who is the subject of the 팬픽캠 (FAN PICK CAM), a close-up camera video of a single performer. One reported window, for the 28 July 2026 broadcast, ran from 17:00 on 24 July to 10:00 on 27 July, a Friday evening to a Monday morning.

The relaunched programme does award a weekly trophy: press reporting records RESCENE taking one on 14 July 2026, about two years after the group debuted.

7. Check what holds across all five shows

Two things are the same wherever a live vote exists at all. It is open only while the programme is actually being broadcast, and in a preempted week it does not run — MBC’s platform notice and SBS’s notice say so in almost the same words.

Everything else is per-show, and the apps are the clearest case. Show! Music Core uses Mubeat and MUNIVERSE; M COUNTDOWN’s vote components sit on Mnet Plus; Inkigayo uses LiNC before the broadcast and HIGHER during it; Show Champion uses IDOL CHAMP; The Show uses BIGC. None of them substitutes for another.

One question this guide cannot answer is whether an account outside Korea may take part in any given show’s vote. Four of the five label a component 글로벌 (global) and run it in apps distributed on the worldwide App Store and Google Play, and no broadcaster publishes a residency or nationality rule either way. The one component that is definitely not open to a general reader is MBC’s 시청자위원회, because its 2,000 members are selected onto the panel.

When something here does not match what an app is showing, the broadcaster’s own page is the thing to check, and each of them restates its rules on a weekly cycle: Show! Music Core’s chart board on imbc.com, Inkigayo’s notice board on sbs.co.kr, MBC PLUS’s Show Champion pages, Mnet Plus’s Chart tab and — for The Show — the SBS programme listing and the BIGC community it points to. A fan cafe summary or a wiki page is a pointer towards those notices, never a replacement for one; every number in this guide came from the notices themselves.

One limit on scope: this guide covers the weekly programmes that publish a ranking, not every music show on Korean television.

Frequently asked questions

Are all the music shows scored the same way?

No. Each broadcaster publishes its own weights and they differ substantially. Show! Music Core puts 50% on 음원 (digital audio) and 10% on its 글로벌 사전투표 (global pre-vote); Show Champion puts 35% on 음원 and 20% on its 글로벌 팬 투표 (global fan vote).

Does the audience vote decide the winner?

On the four shows that publish a formula, the audience vote is a minority share of the total. M COUNTDOWN: 글로벌 팬 투표 10% plus 생방송 투표 10%. Show! Music Core: 글로벌 사전투표 10% plus 생방송 앱 투표 6% and 생방송 문자 투표 4%, with a further 5% cast by the 2,000-member 시청자위원회 panel. Inkigayo: 사전투표 5% plus 실시간투표 5%. Show Champion: 글로벌 팬 투표 20%, and no live vote. The Show’s share is not published.

Does every show have a live vote?

No. Show Champion’s five published components are all settled before the broadcast begins, and its formula contains no in-show vote.

Which app does each show use?

Show! Music Core — Mubeat and MUNIVERSE (뮤니버스). Inkigayo — LiNC before the broadcast, HIGHER (하이어) during it. Show Champion — 아이돌챔프 (IDOL CHAMP). The Show — the BIGC app, as 빅크 초이스 (BIGC CHOICE). M COUNTDOWN — Mnet Plus, the broadcaster’s own platform.

What happens if the show does not air that week?

The live vote does not run. MUNIVERSE’s notice for Show! Music Core and SBS’s notice for Inkigayo both state it, and neither describes a substitute.

Can one song keep winning indefinitely?

Not on the two shows that publish a rule for it. Show! Music Core removes a song from the chart after three number ones in total, placing it in the 레전드 M-Chart; Inkigayo does the same at three, through its 명예의 전당 (hall of fame).

How many songs by one act are counted at once?

Show! Music Core counts one song per act. Inkigayo counts up to two.

Is a drama OST eligible?

Not on Show! Music Core or Inkigayo. Both also exclude audio that came out of an audition or other broadcast programme.

Can someone outside Korea take part?

No broadcaster publishes a rule either way. What is stated is that four of the five call the component 글로벌 (global) and run it in apps distributed on the worldwide App Store and Google Play. MBC’s 시청자위원회 is the one component that is not open to anyone: its 2,000 members are selected onto the panel.